In 2013, BMW Motorrrad released its first electric scooter called the C Revolution. It never made it to Australian shores, probably because BMW thought that we weren’t yet ready for an electric scooter.
Almost 10 years on and the first BMW electric scooter to hit Australian shores has come in the form of the BMW CE 04, and The Driven received an invite to be one of the first to test ride. Having test-driven the more modest – and much cheaper –Fonz Arthur, I was interested to see what a high performance electric scooter would be like.
Let’s start off with the looks. In the CE 04, BMW Motorrad has achieved something I haven’t actually seen in many scooters, apart from maybe the Vespa.
They’ve made it look very cool. The electric drive train sits alongside the 15″ rear wheel which appears to stick out of the back of the frame. It gives it a long yet narrow appearance and reminded me initially of Batman’s Batcycle.
My other initial thought was, where the hell is the storage? The answer to that is in the centre console, where there is also enough room for a helmet and charging cables.
Above that storage compartment is a fairly slim seat, which honestly didn’t look that comfortable. Sitting on the bike I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable it actually was.
The extra weight of the 15kWh battery which gives it a total weight of 231kg, combined with the length, and the bulkier front end of the scooter gave me a reassuring feeling of riding something fairly solid. It’s a heavyweight bike that requires heavyweight power.
The centre storage space makes up for the lack of a topbox, with space for a helmet and charging cables.
The 10.25″ TFT Display is easy to read and had a practical layout. It offers connectivity to your mobile so you can load up maps and take phone calls while you’re on the go (the latter of which I didn’t attempt). The initial setup and connection process was a little clunky, with the requirement of downloading the BMW Motorrad app to connect.
You also have to leave your phone display on while the app is open if you want to take advantage of all the GPS features while driving. Depending on the length of your ride, you may arrive at your destination with a drained phone battery. Luckily though, the CE 04 does have USB charging capability for your phone.
The digital dashboard is a decent size and once setup and connected, was fairly easy to use.
Our drive day started off with a high-production presentation with smoke machines, laser lights and a stage, all set up in the foyer of BMW HQ in Melbourne.
One thing that was clear from the start was that BMW doesn’t intend to release this vehicle with a soft launch and hope a few hundred people pick up on it. They see the time is ripe for an electric scooter to enter what is currently a pretty bare market. BMW Motorrad say they expect to sell over 5,000 units in Australia.
The BMW Motorrad team taking us through the specs of the CE 04 prior to our drive.
Now to the question of how it rides. It’s good. Ok, very good. I’ll elaborate.
The CE 04 offers acceleration from 0-50km/h in 2.5 seconds, with up to 42 horsepower. That’s zippy, particularly in the scooter world.
You can choose from 4 drive modes. Eco, Road, Rain, and Dynamic. Eco obviously if range is a concern for your journey. Road is probably the standard option, and also the mode I enjoyed the most. It offered a really nice combination of electric torque, as well as a really smooth acceleration. That smooth feeling continues at cruising speed.
Rain is well, for rain. It did actually rain during our drive and so I switched over with a small part of me hoping an umbrella or a roof with some hot air blowing down on me would appear, but alas it wasn’t to be.
Dynamic is reserved for those moments you want to leave your combustion friends eating dust at the traffic lights. This was fun, but also took away a bit of that smoothness you get driving on Road mode. The sharp acceleration of the CE 04 meant I was struggling to reach full throttle at any point before having to slow down for a traffic light or risk doubling the speed limit.
Let’s be clear. The CE 04 is not trying to compete the Harley Davidson Livewire. It isn’t a road bike. It’s a city bike, with approximately 130km of range and a top speed of 120km/h. But unlike other city-slicker vehicles, it has the power and handling to make you feel like you could very well take it on a longer journey – just as long as you have your charging stops planned out.
The day included about 2 hours of city riding, covering roughly 70kms. Despite long periods of riding without much use of the regenerative brakes as we rode up the southern coast of Melbourne’s south-east, the battery range for the most part held true to its forecasts.
It was a typically cold Melbourne day, so the heated seat and grips was a welcome luxury not commonly found on scooters. Pit stops included a quick pull over at a public charging station to demonstrate how to charge the scooter. Using a type 2 charger you can expect to charge from 0-100% in just under 5 and a half hours, and from 0-80% in juster under 4 and a half hours.
There is an option to purchase the bike with a quick charger which gives you a significant boost in charging capacity from the standard 2.3 kW up to 6.9kW. This decreases the charge time to approximately 1 hour 40 minutes to go from 0-100%, and just over an hour from 0-80%.
It’s not everyday you drive past a pack of electric scooters.
At this point the bike has gotten big ticks from the looks and drive categories.
How about the price? That’s where it gets very tricky.
Starting from just under $22,000 ride away, this would be by some distance the most expensive scooter in the market. Trying to gauge the value is difficult with there being so little competition to compare it to.
If you compare it with combustion rivals, it won’t be hard to balk at the price tag. If I was to compare it to the other emerging player in the Australian electric scooter market Fonz, you’re looking at almost 4x the price.
So how does one justify the price of the bike? Well, that really depends on the person buying it. This bike is obviously for those who are able to splash more cash on a bike than most. In exchange for a significantly higher price tag than other scooters on the market, you’re getting a significantly better scooter.
The design and the performance of this bike does make it stand out from the crowd. It’s for the city resident that wants a performance vehicle that comes with all the benefits of travel time and efficiency you get when using a bike or scooter over a standard car.
It’s also worth pointing out the significant difference in price between this performance electric vehicle, and the cheapest electric car on the market. So if you’re looking for a good looking performance EV but don’t want to spend over $50k, then this may suddenly present itself as a very viable option.
BMW CE 04 specifications
Price: From $21,960 ride-away
Basics: EV scooter, RWD
Range: 130km (claimed), 120km (real world)
Battery capacity: 8.5kWh (usable)
Battery warranty: 3 years, unlimited km
Energy consumption: 7.7kWh/100km
Motors: 1 rear, 31kW/62Nm
AC charging: 6.9kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: NA
0-50km/h: 2.6 seconds
Top speed: 120km/h
Keyword: Test Ride: BMW’s $20,000 CE 04 electric scooter that leaves combustion friends in the dust